Pike/Citizen photo
Morgan Thatcher and the UNH volleyball team celebrate a point during Saturday's 3-2 win over Central Connecticut in the annual Holly Young Invitational. At left is Brenna Buckwalter and No. 17 is Elizabeth Kennerly.

DURHAM — Holly Young and her story touched many people. Erin Cade is one of them even though she hadn't known her that long.

Cade was a senior on the University of New Hampshire volleyball team when Young was a freshman. Cade, a two-time co-captain for the Wildcats, graduated in 2006 and Young died two years later from a rare form of bone cancer.

Now in her second season as the head coach at Holy Cross, Cade brought her team to the Holly Young Invitational this weekend for the first time.

But before the players stepped into Lundholm Gym, she wanted to make sure they understood the significance of the annual tournament, which is in its fifth year.

So she showed them a video of Young that still has Cade struggling to fight back the tears.

"That's exactly why I wanted to bring them back here," said Cade, who was known as Erin Walker in her playing days. "It was excellent to see that it inspired our team as well. We were driving up here in the vans and our players knew what this tournament meant."

In addition to UNH and Holy Cross, the four-team field also included Central Connecticut and William & Mary. The Wildcats won their first two matches, including a 3-2 victory over Central Connecticut on Saturday afternoon in which they rallied from two sets down.

They improved to 4-5 with their third straight win and second in the tourney.

It was also UNH's first five-set win of the season after dropping three in a row, including two in which the Wildcats were serving for match point.

"It was important for us to win that," UNH coach Jill Hirschinger said of the two hour, 46-minute match. "We needed to win a five-gamer and close it out when it was in our hands."

UNH had another match to play Saturday night against William & Mary that ended the tourney. Young must be smiling somewhere following a Wildcat comeback that ended 21-19 in the fifth set.

In fact, that's the way Cade remembers her.

"Always a positive attitude and smiling face," said Cade, who often drove Young around when she wasn't feeling well. "She was just one of those players that loved volleyball. It was inspiring for someone who is a senior to see someone so young come in and have that life and be full of energy."

It took a lot of energy for UNH to dig itself out of a two-set deficit. The Wildcats lost the first two by scores of 25-22 and 25-23. They took the next two 25-19 and 25-22.

"I felt we were playing kind of passive," Hirschinger said. "Central Connecticut is a scrappy team on defense. They kind of frustrated us and we couldn't get into a rhythm. I just thought that throughout the match we just got better and better and started getting our timing down."

After trailing most of the first two sets, UNH led wire to wire in the third to jump-start the rally. Down 18-17 in the fifth set, the Wildcats scored four of the next five points to prevail.

The Wildcats were playing for Young, who never got a chance to play in a college match.

"Every time and every minute she was on the court for practice, she didn't take it for granted," said Cade, who was an assistant at UNH for two years. "I think our players realized they're really lucky. They were moved by Holly's story."

Young's empty jersey still hangs in the locker room, although none of current players ever met her.

"We talk about the history of the locker room and that's part of the history," Hirschinger said. "They all know what Holly meant to everybody here."

"She's definitely in our locker room every day with her jersey hanging above our heads," said senior co-captain Jessie Schnepp. "The determination and energy she had is something we all have inside of us. It's part of the program."

The win Saturday was a big confidence boost for a young squad that has only two seniors and two juniors.

Two of those upperclassmen led the way Saturday. Junior co-captain Morgan Thatcher had a match-high 23 kills and Schnepp had a match-best 28 digs.

"That was huge for us to show that we can win and know how to close it out," Hirschinger said. "If you just stick to it and keep working hard good things will happen."

The Wildcats have experienced the other side of Saturday's outcome.

"It's great to see how we can stay level-headed and push through the adversity," Schnepp said. "We were up 2-0 in one (match) and the other team came back and beat us in five. That's been with us the whole time."